The Rages continued to pelt in his direction. No doubt they could hear the roar of his engine. It would be a chiming dinner bell to them. He put them out of his mind and focused on that damn wall.
Finally, movement. The mountainside began to shift, distort, like some kind of optical illusion. The cloak disappeared suddenly in the blink of an eye, a magic trick. One second it was there, the next, it wasn’t. The giant doors of the Vehicle Service Centre cracked open.
It was going to be a tight squeeze.
Donny altered his trajectory slightly, aiming directly at the centre. The doors were still—painfully slowly—opening. He clenched his eyes shut tight as the car raced into the cliffside and. . .
Passed through.
Donny quickly overcame his shock and hit the brakes.
Never turn the wheel when you’re braking hard, his father used to warn him. Not until you slow down some.
Donny was finding it difficult to even keep the car straight when he hit the brakes as hard as he had. A ripping, tearing sound as the wheels grappled for purchase. The parked cars ahead rushed up to meet him.
Fast. Much too fast.
Donny wrestled with the wheel as he continued to barrel forward. Then, abruptly and all at once, the car came to a stop. Inches from the fire truck. Donny jolted forward then back in his seat. He panted, covered head to foot in a cold sweat. He checked the rearview mirror.
Horror.
The doors were still opening. Apparently, they needed to complete a full move before they could close again. They seemed to be taking forever to open. Donny knew what was outside, what was trying to get in. They couldn’t be allowed in. Not any more. He climbed from the car, legs shaking with his near-death experience.
He closed on the wide opening. Hurry up and shut, damn it! He scooped up a wrench on his way. Felt the heavyweight in his hand. It felt good.
The light above the doors began to blink green. They were shutting. About time. Donny kept the wrench handy.
Familiar shrieks from the Rages as they drew closer, the gap growing smaller. Still large enough for them to get through. The groans grew louder still, echoing off the cold blank walls. As the moans crested, growing to a crescendo, the doors shut, cutting the growls off dead.
Donny let out a sigh of relief and held the wrench as he turned and ran for the exit.
61.
AS THE roaring grew quieter, Dr. Beck took his hands off his head. He glanced up at the ceiling, at the walls. Nothing had collapsed. Nothing had fallen on top of him. The facility was still standing. Who knew what effect the explosion had on its structural foundation. He would need to do a diagnostic check later.
The lights overhead began to dim until it turned dark, then gradually lit back up, before growing dark again. The emergency protocol had engaged.
Dr. Beck reached for his remote and attempted to override the settings. He was unable to do so. Damn. He needed to get to a terminal before he could override it.
They were trapped with whatever Rages had managed to get inside the facility. It was likely enough to wipe all of them out. And why not? It wasn’t like the Rages hadn’t done it before.
62.
JAMIE AND Fatty crept down the corridors. It was taking them a long time to check each doorway, covering one another and nodding it was clear before continuing. It would take hours to reach the Weapon Research Division at this rate. But hours were better than never.
The lights began to dim.
“Oh great,” Fatty said. “Darkness.”
Black did indeed follow but was then replaced by growing light.
“What’s going on?” Fatty said. “I feel like a rat in a maze.”
Their pagers flashed.
EMERGENCY PROTOCOL INITIATED. ALL DOORS UNLOCKED. BE CAREFUL.
“All doors unlocked?” Fatty said. “I don’t understand what that means.”
“It means the Rages can wander anywhere they want,” Jamie said. “No obstacles.”
“Yippee,” Fatty said. “This was getting too easy. I always like a good challenge.”
“Stop flapping your lip and come on,” Jamie said.
Fatty clutched his axe close. What he wouldn’t give for a good bow and arrow right about now. Or better yet, a Gatling gun.
63.
THE FIRST time the lights dimmed, Lucy backed into a doorway. She hated the dark. It reminded her of the time she spent in the tank of green liquid. It had blocked out most of the light, casting her in cloudy murkiness. Then the lights began to rise again. It made the situation a lot scarier than it was.
Most of the Rages were still in the basement, making their way up the stairs, higher and higher. Could they have scaled enough stairs to have made it to her level already? She didn’t know. She hadn’t heard or smelled them yet.
Her breath caught in her throat whenever the light darkened and began to shift to the bright side. Something could leap at her as it dissipated into the darkness phase, setting her on edge.
The mind did funny things when it was on edge. Her breath was loud in her ears. She panted, hard, loud. She concentrated on her breathing and reduced the volume. For all she knew, it was the kind of thing that attracted Rages. She was woefully uneducated on the creatures.
A noise. A slap, like something had collided with a wall.
Somewhere behind her, she thought. She backed into a doorway and waited for the light to silently rise again. She clutched the short sword Jamie had given her, grateful he’d insisted on her taking it, but wishing she knew how to use it more effectively than simply hacking and slashing. Wished she knew for certain she would not simply freeze when confronted by one of those things.
The lights began to make its silent crescendo again before descending into the infinite darkness. Lucy used the opportunity to step from her doorway and rush to the next one, pressing her back to it as the light faded to darkness again. She shifted to the next doorway. She moved like that, one doorway at a time in the time-limited shadows. Dark breadcrumbs leading to safety.
That sound again. Thumping, thudding.
Footsteps.
Heading her way. Bouncing off the cold walls.
Right on top of her now.
Lucy screamed.
Big mistake. She could only garner more of the creatures’ attention that way. She brought the sword around, more out of panic than instinct.
“Woah! Lucy! You nearly took my head off!”
Lucy opened her eyes. She was so pleased to see Donny that she leapt forward and wrapped her arms around him. He was too tall for her to hug any higher than his waist. Donny put up with it but didn’t hug her back. He probably felt uncomfortable. Lucy didn’t care. He was a warm body.
“Have you seen any of the others?” Donny said after she pulled back.
“No,” Lucy said, wiping her runny eyes and nose. “But I saw them on the monitors. They’re okay.”
“Even Jamie?” Donny said. “You’re sure?”
“They were fine when they left the basement,” Lucy said. “The Rages chased after them but they got a good headstart. They should be all right.”
A huge weight off Donny’s shoulders.
“How are you doing?” he said.
“Scared,” Lucy said.
“That’s understandable,” Donny said. “Whoever thought these flashing lights during an emergency were a good idea needs to get their head checked. Let’s get out of here.”
Lucy, a lot more confident now she wasn’t alone, followed him.
64.
ARMED WITH their headstart—the greatest weapon in any survivor’s arsenal against Rages—Jamie and Donny were the first to arrive in the Weapon Research Division. A contingent of Rages on your tail tended to give you the motivation you needed to hot step it.
Jamie hadn’t had the intention of running the whole way but the idea of an elevator arriving with its sweet ding before the doors opened, revealing a gang of stowaway Rages was too much to bear. Besides, scaling stairs wasn’t so tough
once you got into a good rhythm.
Three steps at a time, five strides to a flight, and you soon rose through the floors. He didn’t need to check on Fatty. He would never stop so long as those creatures were following them. Twisted ankle, broken leg, it didn’t matter. He would keep on going.
The door to the Weapon Research Division shut behind them automatically. They collapsed on the floor, weapons clattering, panting through aching, hot lungs that struggled to harvest enough oxygen to recover from their exhaustive bolt up the stairs. Black spots danced in Jamie’s vision. He covered his eyes to stop the strobing bright light from blinding him. Prostrate on the floor as they were, in their current condition, they couldn’t have stopped a fly from having its way with them.
Then the most unwelcome sound in the world: the doors opening.
A clot of much-needed oxygen caught in Jamie’s throat. He looked to the door. Made out a shadowy figure as it lumbered into the room. Jamie squirmed back on his elbows.
They’d followed them here! They’d followed them to this room! They were doomed!
“Stay. . . away!” Jamie wheezed.
Fatty coughed, terror etched on the tears that issued from his eyes. The shadowy figure hobbled into the room in Jamie’s direction, hands held out for him.
“No,” Jamie said. “No!”
“It’s all right,” Dr. Beck said. “It’s me.”
As the emergency lights began to fade up again, Jamie could see it was indeed the doctor. Jamie relaxed and let his heart rate slow to its normal speed. Let his head thud to the floor in relief.
“I can’t take much more of this,” Fatty said.
Another figured lurched into the room.
“Look out!” Fatty screamed.
Dr. Beck’s reaction was slow. He was an old man. Far too slow to protect himself.
65.
LUCKY FOR him, it wasn’t a Rage either, but Donny, followed by Lucy hot on his heels.
“Let me lock this room down before any more of us have a heart attack,” Dr. Beck said, taking out his remote control and pressing the buttons.
“Can you do us a favour and turn these damn flashing lights off?” Donny said. “They’re giving me a headache.”
“Just a moment,” Dr. Beck said, pressing more buttons.
The lights made their final bow before returning to their normal constant level.
“I don’t understand what went wrong,” Donny said, tossing his wrench in the middle of the table. “Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?”
“The Rages didn’t get distracted,” Dr. Beck said. “That’s your problem right there.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Donny said. “How did it happen? It was a damn simple plan.”
“The first charge went off and they started to leave,” Jamie said. “There was a Rage in the corridor that was getting close to our position. It turned around after it heard your charge go off.”
“I saw that too,” Lucy said. “On the monitors.”
“The whole lot of them were leaving,” Dr. Beck said, nodding his head.
“Then what got their attention?” Donny said.
Blank looks all around.
“Nobody saw anything?” Donny said.
He turned to Jamie and Fatty.
“You guys were the closest to these things on the ground,” he said. “Did one of you make a sound?”
“Don’t blame us,” Jamie said, offended.
“Yeah,” Fatty said. “You could have heard a mouse fart with the amount of noise we weren’t making.”
“And you didn’t hear anything in the basement?” Donny said.
“No,” Jamie said. “Nothing. No visual things either. No flashing lights.”
“How about inside the corridor?” Donny said to Lucy. “Was there anything on the monitor?”
“No,” Lucy said. “Nothing. And I was watching very closely.”
“What about a mouse?” Fatty said.
“And its farts?” Donny said, rolling his eyes.
“No,” Fatty said. “Or maybe yes. I mean, what if it was something the Rage picked up on that we couldn’t see or hear. Something like a mouse. Out of our view, and camera shot.”
“No,” Lucy said. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Fatty said. “It would make the Rage turn in our direction and we wouldn’t even know what had done it.”
“An intelligent thought from fatso for once,” Donny said.
“The Rage would have fallen to its knees to scrabble around for it,” Lucy said. “More than that, it wasn’t only one Rage that heard something.”
“These things are like sheep,” Jamie said. “If one starts heading in a given direction, the others automatically follow.”
“That’s true,” Lucy said. “Except the other Rages turned at the same time and in the same direction. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to get all their attention.”
They were silent a moment. No one could come up with anything.
“There is another explanation,” Dr. Beck said, turning to address them, looking each in the eye. “The Bugs. We know they have a weapon that directs the Rages to attack a given location. They created the damn virus. They are the ones most likely to have some way to manipulate it.”
“Then why didn’t the Rages attack the City earlier?” Donny said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Unless the Bugs sent the signal right then, at that moment,” Lucy said.
“You think they were watching us?” Fatty said, placing a hand on his stomach, suddenly feeling ill.
Jamie could certainly understand that. His stomach felt like it was turning too.
“Anything is possible,” Dr. Beck said.
“That’s what bothers me about these kinds of explanations,” Donny said. “If anything is possible, it means we’ll never discover what really happened here today. And who knows when something like this might happen again.”
“What about what happens right now?” Fatty said. “What are we going to do? We’re in a City infested with Rages. What action are we going to take?”
“We’ll clear them out,” Donny said with conviction. “We’ll slay every last one of them.”
“I don’t like it,” Fatty said. “But I don’t see any other way. If we want to keep living here we have to make it safe.”
“Just how many of these things got in?” Donny said. “Can’t be more than a few dozen, right?”
“Hundreds,” Lucy said. “Maybe thousands.”
“It can’t be that many,” Donny said, suddenly becoming less sure of his plan.
“I’m afraid it is,” Dr. Beck said. “There was a very large concentration of them outside before we even started. It’s my fault. I should have done this days ago. There wouldn’t have been as many then. I thought they would move further away. ”
“We can’t worry about that now,” Jamie said. “We have to deal with the problem we have in front of us.”
He was repeating his father’s own words of wise leadership. He turned to Donny.
“How do you want to go about it?” he said.
Donny thought a moment, then turned to Dr. Beck.
“Can we access the security system from here?” he said. “We want to know where the Rages are, how many of them there are, where to avoid.”
Dr. Beck moved to a terminal and brought up the video feed. He transferred it to a portable tablet.
“I’ve got it,” he said.
“Are any of them near Dad’s private hospital room?” Jamie said.
A moment as Dr. Beck checked.
“Yes,” he said. “Close, but a safe distance away.”
For now.
“Here’s what we do,” Donny said. “We get Dad and then get the hell out of here. That’s the plan. We’ll take as many weapons as we can carry and blow these things away if they attack us.”
“What if we get cornered by them?” Fatty said.
“Then we’ll blow another hole to
get out of here,” Donny said. “Everybody suit up.”
“How is wearing a suit going to help?” Fatty said.
“Figure of speech,” Donny said. “It means grab your weapons. We’ll cut down any Rage we come to.”
Their hopes and dreams of relocating to the City were up in smoke. Was nowhere safe?
66.
“THERE’S A small group of them this way,” Dr. Beck said, using the tablet to guide him. “We’ll begin in the basement and work our way up.”
The first thing they’d done was check if any of the monsters were directly outside their room, then in their immediate vicinity, in case they got set upon the moment they stepped outside the room.
They were fully locked and loaded. Mini-Rambos looking for trouble. They stocked themselves with automatic weapons and ancient weapons alike. Jamie had finally gotten his hands on his very own pistol. His father couldn’t stop him now!
They applied silencers to every weapon they could. The last thing they needed was to open fire on a gang of Rages, only for an unknown horde to descend upon them from behind.
With Dr. Beck at their head, they travelled slowly, quietly. Every few minutes, Dr. Beck said, “Stop.” Then he proceeded to watch the security monitors on his tablet before resuming their course. They took a very strange course through the corridors, often heading in the opposite direction to the one they wanted in an effort to avoid the beasts in their path.
A lot of it was down to timing. The Rages, now with nothing to chase and nothing to stimulate them, meandered first in one direction, then another. The ones with good eyes—although all Rages had questionable sight and preferred to rely on their other senses such as smell—occasionally drifted more than the others, which caused their group to follow them. That was how a Rage stampede occurred, often without any real catalyst at its heart. Then there were the times the Rages stimulated each other and ended up only really chasing their shadows.
After the Fall- The Complete series Box Set Page 33